Adopt-a-Soldier package goes AWOL

Adopt-a-Soldier Door County is hoping a package meant for a Luxemburg Marine will be returned after it went missing from the front porch of his parents' home in November.

The package was supposed to be a Christmas gift for U.S. Marine Cpl. Joseph Paider. Usually, Adopt-a-Soldier packages are mailed to where the soldiers are stationed. Paider was home on leave after a six-month tour of Iraq, and it was decided to drop off his package at his parents' home in Luxemburg to save on postage.

Nancy Hutchinson from Adopt-a-Solider Door County placed the care package — which contained a hand-tied fleece blanket, an insulated cup, letters from local schoolchildren and other items — on the porch.

For two weeks, Hutchinson heard nothing. Then she contacted Paider's mother, Ann, and asked about the package.

Ann Paider was not aware anything had been dropped off at the family’s home.

“Joseph was home on leave,” Ann Paider said. “None of us saw that package on the front porch.”

She reported the lost parcel to law enforcement in case any other packages had been stolen in the area.

Once the package was opened, it would have been apparent it was from Adopt-a-Soldier, Hutchinson said.

“It means nothing to you but it means something to this soldier,” she said.

Only 188 of the blankets were made for area service members.

“Whether they knew it was a soldier’s box or not, what was the point of doing it?” Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson would like the package returned, either to the Paiders or law enforcement.

“Whoever took it, please put it back, just return it,” she said.

Ann Paider hopes the person who took the box understands the significance of his or her actions.

“They stole from someone who is giving up their life for them,” she said.

Joseph Paider has since gone to a base in Twentynine Palms, Calif.

svhernande@doorcountyadvocate.com, Samantha Hernandez on Facebook or 920-743-3321, ext. 4112. 

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press Gazette: Adopt-a-Soldier package goes AWOL